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A sort of military barbaric state was kept up at the
residence. It was furnished with the loot of frontier towns. When first
admitted to the principal sala, they saw his wife lying down (she was
not in good health then), with Gaspar Ruiz sitting at the foot of the
couch. His hat was lying on the floor, and his hands reposed on the hilt
of his sword.
"During that first conversation he never removed his big hands from
the sword-hilt, except once, to arrange the coverings about her, with
gentle, careful touches. They noticed that whenever she spoke he would
fix his eyes upon her in a kind of expectant, breathless attention, and
seemingly forget the existence of the world and his own existence,
too. In the course of the farewell banquet, at which she was present
reclining on her couch, he burst forth into complaints of the treatment
he had received. After General San Martin's departure he had been
beset by spies, slandered by civil officials, his services ignored, his
liberty and even his life threatened by the Chilian Government.


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